3 months of Israel-Hamas conflict: The West tries to prevent the war in Gaza from spreading
(Baonghean.vn) - On January 7, top diplomats from the US and Europe sought to prevent the war in Gaza from spreading to the rest of the Middle East. However, three months after the conflict broke out, the increasing bloodshed clearly shows the difficulties they face.
According to Reuters news agency, the Israeli military said its aircraft opened fire on Palestinian militants who attacked soldiers in the occupied West Bank on January 7. Palestinian medical officials said six Palestinians were killed in the attack.
An Israeli border police officer was killed and several others injured when their vehicle was hit by an explosive device during operations in the West Bank city of Jenin, the army and police said.
In the 18 months leading up to the October 7 attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas that rules Gaza, the West Bank had seen its highest level of unrest in decades. However, confrontations in the West Bank have escalated since Israeli forces launched a retaliatory attack on Gaza, devastating the Palestinian enclave as they sought to wipe out Hamas.
In the West Bank alone, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers and settlers in recent weeks and security forces have made thousands of arrests.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the European Union's top diplomat Josep Borrell are making separate visits to the region to try to prevent the war from spreading to Lebanon, the West Bank and Red Sea shipping lanes.
Mr Blinken arrived in Jordan on January 7, after stops in Türkiye and Greece, while Mr Borrell was on a trip to Lebanon. Both said their priority was to stop the potential spread of the war in Gaza.
“We are laser-focused on preventing this conflict from spreading,” said US Secretary of State Blinken, who will also visit Israel, the West Bank, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt on his fourth trip to the region.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari summarized the attack on January 6, saying Israeli forces had completed the dismantling of Hamas' "military framework" in northern Gaza and had killed some 8,000 militants in that area.
“We are now focused on destroying Hamas in the central and southern Gaza Strip,” he said in an online press conference.
“The fighting will continue in 2024. We are operating according to the plan to achieve the objectives of the war, which is to destroy Hamas in the north and the south,” Hagari said.
The October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas in southern Israel left 1,200 people dead and 240 hostages taken, according to Israeli officials. More than 100 hostages are believed to still be held by Hamas.
According to Palestinian health officials on January 6, the Israeli offensive has so far killed 22,722 Palestinians.
Israel has in recent days signaled a shift to reduce the size of its forces as it faces international pressure over the rising death toll and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Palestinian health agency casualty figures do not distinguish between soldiers and civilians, but the agency said 70% of those killed in Gaza were women and children under 18.
The fighting has forced most of the region's 2.3 million people to flee their homes, destroying many homes and civilian infrastructure amid severe shortages of food, water and medicine.